Well, at least as far as doctors and their offices go…. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/business/12drug.html?em&ex=1171429200&en=0cb0e27ca6026e39&ei=5087 Check out the article in the New York Times. This is not the first time we have spoken about the “influence” of pharmaceutical companies on treating physicians. Many of the Nation’s top research hospitals (Michigan and U. Penn included) have forbidden physicians from accepting anything, including free lunches from the drug reps. I celebrate this new move. It’s not that I don’t think doctors are deserving of a good free meal every once in a while…. it’s that I fear the gifts of the drug reps my consciously or unconsciously, alter the physicians prescribing habits. When my physician is making a decision on my behalf about which medication is the most effective, I prefer it be the research, and not the free bread sticks that help her make that decision.